Zopa Bank buys loan portfolio from investor in legacy P2P platform
Zopa Bank has bought a loan portfolio from an institutional investor in its former peer-to-peer lending platform, now rebranded as Plata Finance.
Zopa Group – which pivoted away from P2P lending at the end of 2021 to focus on its digital bank – said in its latest annual results that it had acquired a £41m loan portfolio of performing, unsecured personal loans on 30 March 2023. It paid £38m for the portfolio.
“These loans were purchased from an institutional investor in the legacy P2P platform operated previously by Zopa (now by Plata Finance),” said the results statement, filed with Companies House.
P2P lending veteran Christine Farnish, who headed up Zopa’s P2P board, was terminated as a director of Plata Finance on 11 July, according to documents filed with Companies House.
Read more: P2P veteran leaves Zopa Group board amid reshuffle
The loan book acquisition was revealed in Zopa Group’s results for the year ended 31 December 2022, which also showed that the group narrowed its pre-tax losses from £48.3m in 2021 to £23.8m.
Total operating income increased by 186 per cent to £153.7m, which Zopa attributed to “the continued growth in customers choosing to use Zopa to meet their borrowing and saving needs.”
Read more: Zopa’s P2P business posted £6m loss in final year
